I was recently inspired by an article at MarketingProfs about writing styles entitled: Why Do People Write Like That? (And How You Can Avoid Doing the Same). It specifically refers to a disease they call “Corporatese” which is pretty funny.

What is corporatese you ask? According to Ernest Nicastro, Professional Copywriter, it is “the collective term for the jargon, phrases, and fad words many writers use to make their communications and businesses seem more substantial and important.”

It brought me back to the days when a larger company had acquired a smaller company I’d been a leader in. The corporates had come in with all of these terms I didn’t understand. So we made a “buzzword bingo” card for meetings where we just couldn’t understand what anyone was really saying.

Here at VerticalResponse, I’ve taken those experiences and tried to put it to work for our own website and email marketing campaigns. It’s pretty rare that you’ll see an email or something on our website with a ton of corporate-speak, I’m not a fan of reading and certainly not a fan of writing it, even though I fall prey to using these words around the office…yuck!

You might think that you need to use this type of speak because your product or service warrants the big bucks, or you’re talking to the big company people. The reality is, if you can’t get your message clearly understood, you’re not going to make the sale no matter how good you think your pitch is.

So avoid the following terms in your marketing, or just shout out BINGO in your next meeting if you’ve won! There are a a lot of Buzzword Bingo games out there, but I decided to put one together of my own. Enjoy! Comment and give us some of your own buzzwords.

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